The Washington Post - 05.09.2019

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU D7

HOW THEY SCORED NATIONALS SECOND Suzuki grounds out. Robles strikes out. Parra singles. Sanchez singles. Parra to third. Turner singles. Sanchez to second. Parra scores. Cabrera walks. Turner to second. Sanchez to third. Rendon flies out. Nationals 1, Mets 0 METS THIRD Lagares homers. Wheeler grounds out. McNeil grounds out. Alonso flies out. Mets 1, Nationals 1 METS FOURTH Conforto doubles. Ramos grounds out. Conforto to third. Cano homers to center field. Conforto scores. Da- vis singles. Rosario grounds out. Davis to second. Lagares is intentionally walked. Wheeler flies out. Mets 3, Nationals 1 METS FIFTH McNeil grounds out. Alonso homers to left field. Con- forto strikes out swinging. Ramos grounds out. Mets 4, Nationals 1 METS SIXTH Cano walks. Davis doubles. Cano to third. Rosario singles. Davis scores. Cano scores. Fielding error by Rob- les. JLagares lines out. Nimmo walks. McNeil singles. Nimmo to second. Rosario scores. Alonso pops out. Conforto flies out. Mets 7, Nationals 1 NATIONALS SIXTH Robles grounds out. Parra walks. Stevenson walks. Par- ra to second. Turner strikes out swinging. Cabrera singles. Stevenson to second. Parra scores. Rendon doubles. Cabrera scores. Stevenson scores. Soto strikes out swinging. Mets 7, Nationals 4 METS EIGHTH Rosario singles to left field. Lagares grounds out. Rosa- rio to second. Nimmo walks. McNeil singles. Nimmo out at third. Rosario scores. Alonso grounds out. Mets 8, Nationals 4

Mets 8, Nationals 4 NEW YORK AB RHBI BB SO AVG McNeil 3b .......................502 200.324 Alonso 1b .......................511 100.267 Conforto rf .....................511 002.259 R.Davis rf .......................000 000.188 Ramos c.........................400 010.295 Cano 2b ..........................323 210.259 Lugo p............................000 000--- Frazier ph .......................000 010.234 Haggerty pr....................000 000--- Wilson p.........................000 000--- J.Davis lf ........................312 000.305 Familia p........................000 000--- Avilan p..........................000 000--- Panik ph-2b ....................201 000.278 Rosario ss ......................522 100.286 Lagares cf ......................311 110.204 Wheeler p......................200 000.229 Nimmo ph-lf...................000 020.207 TOTALS 37 8137 62 — WASHINGTON AB RHBI BB SO AVG Turner ss........................502 101.298 Cabrera 2b......................411 110.324 Doolittle p......................000 000.000 Rendon 3b ......................502 200.338 Soto lf ............................401 011.299 Zimmerman 1b ..............501 001.252 Suzuki c..........................400 011.263 Robles cf ........................501 001.251 Parra rf...........................321 010.234 Sanchez p.......................201 001.111 Strickland p....................000 000--- Stevenson ph .................010 010.364 Suero p...........................000 000.000 Rodney p........................000 000--- Kendrick ph-2b...............101 000.330 TOTALS 38 4114 56 — NEW YORK ............. 001 213 010—8 13 0 WASH. .................... 010 003 000—4 11 1 E: Robles (4). LOB: New York 8, Washington 12. 2B: Conforto (25), J.Davis (18), Rendon (39), Robles (28). HR: Lagares (3), off Sanchez; Cano (11), off Sanchez; Alonso (45), off Sanchez. RBI: Lagares (20), Cano 2 (34), Alonso (105), Rosario (59), McNeil 2 (64), Turner (46), Cabrera (23), Rendon 2 (114). SB: Rosario (16). DP: Washington 2 (Rendon, Cabrera, Zimmerman; Tur- ner, Zimmerman). NEW YORK IP HRER BB SO NP ERA Wheeler .................... 571123 101 4.33 Familia ..................... .2 23321246 .43 Avilan ..................... 0.1 000014 4.13 Lugo........................... 220001 26 2.87 Wilson ....................... 100010 15 2.03 WASH. IP HRER BB SO NP ERA Sanchez ................... 587732 74 4.11 Strickland................ 110010 13 2.92 Suero ....................... 110000 15 4.31 Rodney .................... 121110 19 3.42 Doolittle .................. 110010 22 4.17 WP: Wheeler (10-7); LP: Sanchez (8-7). Inherited runners-scored: Avilan 1-0, Strickland 1-1. IBB: off Sanchez (Lagares). WP: Rodney. T: 3 :24. A: 2 0,237 (41,313).

could pin down why.
“Whatever it may be, they had
our number,” shortstop Trea Tur-
ner s aid.
The defeat sank the Nationals
seven games behind the National
League East-leading Atlanta
Braves, w ho had t he day off before
the Nationals arrive Thursday for
a four-game s et t his weekend. The
clubhouse admitted some frustra-
tion that, despite being the best
team in baseball since late May,
the Nationals remain so far be-
hind. Martinez pointed out, “at
least we now get a chance to go
head-to-head,” but he stressed not
changing the approach that got
them here.
“We’re making a mistake if we
start saying: ‘ We h ave to win X out
of X of these games to put our-
selves in position,’ ” closer Sean
Doolittle said. “We’ve j ust got to go
take it o ne game at a t ime. I know it
sounds really cliche, but they’re
too good for us to take a big-pic-
ture approach.”
Except t hat brief j olt in t he s ixth
of, no way, they can’t be doing this
again, the hot and slow afternoon
at Nationals Park felt sluggish as
an encore t o Tuesday’s t heatrics. It
was just hours earlier that the
Nationals mobbed home plate to
complete the greatest comeback
in the ninth inning or later in
franchise h istory.
They h ad s urrendered five runs
in the ninth to trail 10-4, and they
looked doomed: The Mets were
806 -0 w hen leading b y six or more
runs in the ninth or later in fran-
chise history, and when trailing in
the same scenario, the Nationals
were 0-775. B ut t hen the h its start-
ed and never stopped. Kurt S uzuki
stepped to the plate and delivered
the decisive blow, a walk-off,
three-run, no-doubt home run.
The clubhouse celebration got so
rowdy afterward the manager
good-naturedly told his players to
go home; first pitch Wednesday
was s cheduled for 1:05.
“Yesterday happened. It was a
great feeling f or us,” Martinez said
before Wednesday’s game. “ But we

NATIONALS FROM D1

BY MATTHEW GUTIERREZ

Midway through describing the
growing risks of playing catcher,
the Cincinnati Reds’ Tucker Barn-
hart glanced at a TV monitor show-
ing a game between the Boston Red
Sox and Cleveland Indians. Twice
in one minute, Barnhart saw a
backswing smack Boston catcher
Christian Vázquez’s face mask.
“That’s wild, the timing of that,
as I’m talking about this,” said
Barnhart, a Gold Glove winner in

“I’ve been fortunate to not go
through anything crazy. Head-
aches here and there, nothing bad.
... Mask-wise, I go with comfort.
It’s probably not the smartest deci-
sion.”
In t his age of velocity and launch
angle, catchers around the major
leagues are being forced to change
the way they think about the posi-
tion, the gear they wear and how
they receive the baseball. Always
risky, the position has in the past
few years proved to be more dan-
gerous, with much of the risk
linked to an increase in pitch
speed.
With pitchers throwing harder

than ever, there are more foul tips because hitters have less time to connect with the baseball. In turn, catchers are inching closer to the plate to reduce the likelihood a foul tip hits them. Doing so leaves them increasingly vulnerable to backswings. Both foul tips and backswings have effects. A recent study found that while on-field collisions are rare — perhaps a result of a 20 14 rule designed to prevent collisions at home plate — getting hit by a pitch or injured by foul tip were the most common causes for concussions in the majors. But much of what’s happening to catchers — headaches, bleeding, bruises — doesn’t get reported. Many times, they stay in the game after a blow to the face mask, as Vázquez did. They pride them- selves o n durability and toughness. They w ant to stay o n the field. At what cost? “It’s bigger than baseball. It’s your life that you’re messing with,” Colorado Rockies catcher To ny Wolters said. “Sometimes you get hit hard and you’re like, ‘Whoa.’ Safety has to be a priority for a

catcher. It’s your livelihood. It’s how you’re going to be living for the rest of your life.”

Seeking data Vani Sabesan, an orthopedic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, and her team sought to answer a riddle: While runners almost always slide at home plate, why are there still so many catcher i njuries? But Sabesan found there was little catcher injury information available. “We can do better at protecting our players and tracking injuries,” Sabesan said. Atlanta Braves catching instruc- tor Sal Fasano believes in more protocols, sensitivity and aware- ness to the rigors of catching. He said it’s on coaches and trainers to put catchers on the injured list. Reading a catcher’s injury report, seeing a catcher get dinged — the former journeyman catcher finds it unsettling. “You’re holding your heart,” Fa- sano said. “If they say, ‘I’m a little foggy,’ we tell them to talk to the trainer right away. We have to be more sensitive with it; players have

to be honest with it.” With data sparse, one of Sabe- san’s fellow researchers, Kiran Chatha, said it remains to be seen what long-term impact increased foul tips and backswings could have. There’s no evidence of catchers having the same issues that are widely accepted to be associated with football — that many players suffer from early dementia, depres- sion, confusion, suicidal tenden- cies and other conditions. But it’s especially concerning that many foul tips to the head don’t get reported, Chatha said. It also is “really s urprising how many catchers have suffered concussions, which h ave long-term effects including [chronic traumatic en- cephalopathy],” s he said. For now, Sabesan said, more re- search on face masks may reduce concussions. “What would be nice: more pro- tective catcher gear,” she said. “That’s what we had hoped to insti- gate with this, including at the youth levels.” Better protection is also the focus for many big league catchers, who acknowledge that no mask is

concussion-proof. What they seek are masks that maintain visibility without sacrificing comfort and safety. “It’s all luck,” t he Nationals’ Kurt Suzuki said. “Hopefully, you don’t get hit.” Fellow Nationals backstop Yan Gomes ducks his head to avoid getting hit on a backswing. But that’s no guarantee. “I haven’t solved the riddle of getting hit,” he said.

Time for change After suffering a concussion in 2017, catcher Brian McCann, a seven-time all-star and a six-time Sil- ver Slugger winner then with the Houston Astros and now with the Braves, texted a friend, “This is enough, I don’t want to do this again.” He needed a new, better helmet, an answer many catchers believe could solve some of the issues they face behind the plate. Suzuki has felt impact to most parts of his body, including his head — forehead, sides, top, nose and chin. Before games, he checks which hitters have long back-

swings. There’s m ore of them, so he squats farther away from the plate to give himself enough room. A few years ago, when a blow to the mask hit him hard — “It rung me pretty good,” he said — he also needed to make a change. He received a text from Braves catcher Ty ler Flowers, who was part of a new company called Force3 Pro Gear. The idea of Force3’s mask with “S3 Shock Sus- pension,” belongs to Jason Klein, a former minor league umpire. Flowers shipped Suzuki a Force3 mask, and Klein said more than 30 big league catchers now wear the Force3 Defender mask, which uses a spring-cushioned, shock-ab- sorption system that reduces the force of an impact. The New York Yankees’ Kyle Hi- gashioka replaces his mask once per month or whenever the bars bend. He said he gets hit hard by a foul tip once per game. “I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a concussion,” Higashioka said. “Not that I know of.” Then he knocked on the wooden locker behind him. [email protected]

In an age of velocity, major league catchers are increasingly feeling the heat

Similar feats — rallying from six runs down in the ninth to win in that inning — have happened only six times since records of such things were kept starting in 1925. There was much dancing on South Capitol Street and much flushing — of Mets playoff chances — in Flushing. To ld that only two teams had ever come back from bigger deficits in the ninth inning — both seven runs behind — Ryan Zimmerman said, disbelieving, “There are better ones than that!?” “It’s a cool game, isn’t i t,” Adam Eaton said. A few hours later, on Wednesday morning, reliever Aaron Barrett r eported to the Nats’ clubhouse, summoned back to the majors after a four-year comeback from an elbow injury. When Barrett’s a rm snapped, the humerus broken, onlookers said it sounded like “a gunshot” a nd looked like his elbow had “exploded.” Mat L atos, a 6-foot-6 veteran pitcher covered with scary tattoos, went to the dugout to vomit. The surgeon who reassembled Barrett, with plates and 18 pins, said it was a car-wreck injury, n ot anything you would expect in baseball. “A t first, I didn’t t hink I’d be able to throw a ball — in general. Then there were times where I didn’t k now if I’d get through it — just the pain was too much,” s aid Barrett, in the Nats’ clubhouse. “But I’m not a quitter, never have been, and I found it in myself to keep pushing forward. “Called my w ife [Tuesday]. I was crying obviously. She was bawling. To ld her, ‘We’re going back,’ ” s aid Barrett, who saved 31 games in Class AA. “She was basically my n urse for two years.

... She’s b een my r ock. Not only
her, my f amily, this whole
organization — incredible.
“Sorry,” a dded Barrett, probably
because he had teared up and
choked up while talking. I can’t
confirm that — things looked kind
of blurry to me.
“Here’s a guy whose arm
basically discombobulated,” Nats
Manager Dave Martinez said.
“Whenever he comes out to pitch
[his first game back] — for him, for
everybody — the emotions are
going to be flaring.”
The odds on the Nats’
comeback could be calculated: 0.1
percent, according to baseball-
reference.com. The odds of
Barrett’s r eturn are incalculable
and almost incomprehensible.
However, they both illustrate
the same point: Baseball provides
fabulous memories. But usually
they come at a steep price. Not
only does the game reject the
fainthearted, it constantly tests
both heart and will, aggravates the
nerves and attacks self-
confidence. Of everyone involved,
it demands the character not to
quit — and that demand is made
almost every day. B ut then what
walk or way of life doesn’t?
That, as much as anything, is
probably why we love and, quite
often, almost hate this game. Why
does it have to be so hard? And so
hard so often — 1 62 or more times
a year. The game is not only tough
work for those who play it but also
for those who choose to watch it
and, in the case of millions,
become mesmerized, almost
transfixed for decades by it as fans.
For example, how hard was
Wednesday when the Nats, who
came to the park so happy and
flying high at g reeting Barrett,
were smacked in their pennant-

BOSWELL FROM D1 race faces by — Who was that other team on the field? Weren’t the Metropolitans disbanded after that 11-10 loss? — oh, yes, the Mets. The Nats wanted to back up their gritty “ Stay in the Fight” w in with another body blow to the Mets. That w ould send them flying to Atlanta to face the Braves trailing in the NL East by six games. Sure, probably too much to overcome with only 24 g ames left, but let’s take our shot. Instead, the Mets took their shot. That w as Act III of this two- day play. T he Nats put eight men on base in the first three innings and lashed four other line drives off the Mets’ Zack Wheeler, whom they had drubbed for a 7.95 ERA in four earlier starts this year. Every smash found a Mets glove — just as three hits in Tuesday’s comeback found turf. The Mets, who entered the d ay with a 7.7 percent chance to make the playoffs, as opposed t o the Nats’ 98.6 percent chance to reach October, won rather easily, 8-4, shoving Washington a full seven g ames behind Atlanta. The next four are in Atlanta, so dream all you want. But e ven winning three of four leaves o nly long-shot math. Perhaps because the Nats are such a veteran team, they sense their situation far more accurately than most teams. “We’re made for October. Just get t here,” B rian Dozier said. “Eleven wins [in October] gets you a nice trophy,” Martinez noted. Analysis by the math folks at Baseball-Reference says that the Nats’ chances of winning the World Series (6.5 percent) are only slightly worse than their chance of passing the Braves (7.7 p ercent). So ironic as it seems, focusing on the division race probably misses much of the point of this season. Seven September meetings with the Braves will be fun to watch and a measuring stick for the Nats. But it’s p robably most important that, between now the playoffs, ace Max Scherzer and closer Sean Doolittle get back to top form. Scherzer showed some progress in six decent innings Tuesday while Doolittle topped 94 mph on his fastball and showed an improved spin rate in one inning Wednesday. S o Obi-Sean may be close to standing tall again. That is, if he can stop falling down. Once on a liner back through the box and once when he simply messed up his mechanics and fell into a heap on the mound, Doolittle ended up a scary, vulnerable mess on the hill. “This was a definite improvement. Now I need to keep hitting 94 and learn to stand up. I came back [into the clubhouse] looking for some bubble wrap to put around us so we can get to Atlanta in one piece,” Doolittle joked. “We’re making a mistake if we start saying: ‘We have to win X out of X of these games to put ourselves in position,’ ” D oolittle added. “We’ve just got to go t ake it one game at a time. I know it sounds really cliche, but they’re too good for us to take a big- picture approach.” In b aseball, the biggest p icture you’re allowed to take sometimes seems to be just one day. “Take a nice cold shower. Catch a bus. Ta ke a plane,” Martinez said. “Here we go a gain.” Flawed, the bunch of ’em, but definitely not faint of heart. [email protected]

Fo r more by Thomas Boswell, visit washingtonpost.com/boswell.

THOMAS BOSWELL

Nationals, Mets demonstrate

this isn’t for the faint of heart

got to focus on today.” The Nationals had a chance to win the series, a significant fact considering their struggles against the Mets. Nationals Park felt as if it had momentum; in his first at-bat Wednesday, Suzuki received a scattered standing ova- tion. But the Nationals, for whatever reason, seemed intent on re- creating Tuesday night’s dire cir- cumstances. Starter Aníbal Sánchez cruised through the first two innings but, as the afternoon wore on, struggled to keep his pitches down in the zone. Hitters prey on the veteran right-hander when he goes upstairs, and the Mets capitalized in the third. Juan Lagares got a letters-high cutter that, even though he had only hit 22 home runs in 2,085 career plate appear- ances, he crushed beyond the deepest n ook in center field. Sánchez tried to adjust his pitching during the game, to get the ball down, but he struggled to find a rhythm. He likes to tweak his approach during at-bats, but the Mets prevented him from doing so by staying aggressive and swinging a t the first pitch. “They don’t let you work on the count,” Sánchez said. “It’s hard to

make adjustments [ in that c ase].” The 35-year-old looked lost in what became his worst outing of the s eason, and he departed in the sixth having faced three batters without getting one o ut. His line — five innings, seven earned runs — looked worse than it was because the defense hiccupped. Victor Robles’s miscue on a line drive up the m iddle allowed the Mets’ sixth run to score and put their seventh in scoring p osition. Still, Sánchez had fewer strike- outs (two) than home runs al-

lowed (three). Martinez saw them as three m istakes a nd “ that w as i t.” He f ound no s erious cause f or con- cern moving forward. Robinson Canó hit the second homer one inning after L agares but almost in the same location, and the two- run, opposite field blast gave the Mets a lead they never gave up — despite e fforts f rom their b ullpen. “We had good at-bats. We hit the ball pretty hard,” Martinez said. “Just couldn’t get that one timely hit.” The results didn’t diminish the hope. The crowd remained almost the same size throughout the afternoon. Smaller plays — Robles’s double in t he seventh, Howie Ken- drick’s single in the eighth — drew relatively louder cheers. People wanted to believe. Suzuki came to the plate with two outs in t he ninth, the man who capped Tuesday night’s comeback carrying the h opes f or another. H e got buzzed on a pitch up and in that Martinez believed was “very unintentional.” The catcher even- tually walked, but the deficit was too much. Robles grounded into a fielder’s c hoice. Ballgame. sam [email protected]

Nats don’t have another rally in them

JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST

Amed Rosario scores in the sixth inning to give the Mets a six-run lead. The Nationals dented it before falling short in the series finale.

NATIONALS ON DECK

at Atlanta Braves

Today7:20 MASN Tomorrow 7:20 MASN

Saturday7:20 MASN Sunday1:20 MASN

at Minnesota Twins

Tuesday7:40 MASN2 Wednesday7:40 MASN2

Sept. 12 7:40 MASN

vs. Atlanta Braves

Se pt. 13 7:05 MASN

Sept. 14 4:05 MASN Sept. 15 1:38 MASN

Radio: WJFK (106.7 FM)

The Washington Post - 05.09.2019

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